Review: Kinect Star Wars is an excellent game for young fans

If you’re an adult Star Wars fan, the first thing you need to know about Kinect Star Wars is that it wasn’t designed for you. The entire game, from the ground up, was created with children in mind. That doesn’t mean certain aspects of the title aren’t fun for adults though.

The game features a several modes that take full advantage of the Kinect’s capabilities but some work better than others. For example, the single player campaign is entertaining and rich with Star Wars lore.

Unfortunately, there are problems with the controls in this mode. Using your arm as a lightsabre might seem accurate at first, but I quickly realized that my lightsaber wasn’t always doing what I wanted it to do.

Sometimes the controls work perfectly. Alternating from one handed strikes to two handed hits is extremely impressive the first few times you do it. For children—the game’s intended audience—the control issues probably won’t be a problem, but hardcore Star Wars fans will definitely be disappointed.

The title also allows you to use the force to lift your enemies into the air and dispose of them but only during specific scripted sequences.

Moving your character around through on-rails missions is also somewhat difficult. In order to move forward virtually, the player needs to physically move. This sounds simple but I frequently ran into difficulty trying to get my in-game character to move in the right direction during heated lightsaber battles.

Thankfully, you’re able to use force push whenever you want but it’s very difficult to use properly during frantic battles against multiple enemies. Interestingly, when playing through the campaign cooperatively with two players, I noticed that lightsaber swings seemed even more inaccurate.

The single player campaign also features star fighter battle missions that work well and give the player a glimpse at what blowing up space ships might actually feel like. My major gripe with these missions is that they’re totally on-rails and absent of any freedom to control the direction of your ship— just like the on-foot lightsaber portions of the game

Another problem with the single player campaign is that cut scenes constantly break up the flow of the title’s action. You’ll be happily slashing away at enemies only to have the action abruptly halted by a cinematic.

The game’s story must move forward, but the frequency of cut scenes is extremely annoying. Because these cut scenes are so numerous, at times it’s even difficult to tell when a cinematic has ended and actual gameplay has begun.

Kinect Star Wars’ ridiculous Galactic Danceoff mode isn’t the kind of mini-game I enjoy. However, it might appeal to casual gamers (my girlfriend’s younger sisters had a blast with this mode). It features re-worked pop hits infused with Star Wars lyrics—some of which are admittedly hilarious. In this mode, you dance for points that unlock more songs.

I’m not a fan of this mode. Watching Harrison Ford’sHan Solo dance around is a disturbing sight for any older Star Wars fan. That said, younger gamers will probably get a kick out of galactic danceoff’s two player mode.

The title also features a mode dubbed Rancor Rampage that allows the player to take direct control of a rancor (a giant gorilla-like beast) and smash through recognizable Star Wars locales. Although not a very deep mode, Rancor Rampage is a lot of fun. Waving your arms around and jumping through the air in order to smash objects never loses its appeal—regardless of age.

Kinect Star Wars’ Podracing mode is surprisingly robust, extremely entertaining and probably the one feature that might appeal to hardcore Star Wars fans. I might be the minority on this, but ever since I played Star Wars: Episode 1 Podracer on the Nintendo 64, I’ve wanted to pilot a podracer with my own two hands.

In order to control the podracer, the player holds their hands out in front and pulls either their left or right hand back to turn the vehicle. This might be a little difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, it controls rather smoothly. The single player version of the podracing mini-game features a cheesy but enjoyable plot line and is surprisingly deep for an additional mode.

The game has another mode, Duels of Fate, which puts the player in the finicky duels of the single player campaign all over again. I didn’t find this mode appealing at all and became frustrated by how inaccurately my lightsaber seemed to be responding to my movements.

Graphically, Kinect Star Wars is extremely underwhelming. Textures are muddy, graphical glitches are abundant and objects disappearing in the distance is extremely common. At times, the game looks impressive but for the most part it’s a graphical mess.

The Clone Wars-esque cartoon graphical style is a great design decision by the title’s developer Terminal Reality. It gives the game an appropriate child-like feel but it’s a shame that the title’s graphics engine has so many glaring issues.

Star Wars Kinect is a title that’s trying to appeal to Star Wars’ fans of all ages and this is no easy task—especially on the casual gamer focused Kinect. On some levels the game succeeds, but ultimately its inaccurate controls ruin the experience for older hardcore Star Wars’ fans.

Still, younger players will have a blast with the game and there’s always the awesome podracing mode for grizzled veterans of the Star Wars universe.